Sydney Morning Herald State Political Editor

Pain has been real for the Labor Party during the past fortnight of hearings at the Independent Commission Against Corruption as two of its most notorious former ministers, Eddie Obeid and Ian Macdonald, underwent grillings in the witness box.

For all of the allegations of greed and corrupt behaviour being aired at the commission in relation to lucrative coal-mining leases, there is at least a potential silver lining emerging: renewed focus on the need to reform how NSW politics intersects with the corporate world.

The longer the hearings run, the more they seem to expose the inadequacy of the checks and balances on our state MPs. Accordingly, the pressure is building on the Premier, Barry O'Farrell, to act.

Two weeks ago, the issue of MPs' financial disclosures was raised after revelations that Obeid and his wife, Judith, were paid millions of dollars as beneficiaries of a family trust. Obeid claimed that under the current rules, which exempt loans from family members, he was not required to disclose the payments to Parliament.

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In a remarkably pre-emptive move, the Opposition Leader, John Robertson, had only the day before called on O'Farrell to implement a package of reforms to the disclosure system, including that MPs make public their entire taxable income and that of their spouse or partner.

The Greens went further and proposed even more transparency, including declaration of the details of family loans and trusts with penalties of up to $5500 and five years in jail for deliberate non-compliance.

Next to get a hearing was the question of lobbyists' access to government, courtesy of Macdonald's former chief of staff Tony Hewson. Hewson revealed he had hung out his lobbyist shingle soon after leaving Macdonald's office in May 2007.

As Hewson explained it, his company, the aptly named Dissolve Barriers, making connections between mining companies and the office of the resources minister.

The ICAC heard Hewson's lobbying business raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars from resources companies keen to leverage its near-unfettered access to Macdonald and his senior staff.

Hewson's evidence was that he never felt the need to register as a lobbyist with the NSW Parliament - even after new rules requiring lobbyists who wanted meetings with government representatives to be registered were introduced in 2009. Without the ICAC hearings, we would never have known what he was up to.

The question of regulating lobbyists and their access to key decision makers in government has been given plenty of thought over the years, including by the ICAC.

In 2010, the commission published a report on the issue that called for the dates of meetings between lobbyists and ministers and senior government representatives to be disclosed on a public register, including the date of a meeting, who was lobbied and on whose behalf.

While in opposition in 2010, O'Farrell said he would think about the changes recommended by the ICAC. In government, he has banned success fees for lobbyists but has failed to go further.

It is almost certain that when the ICAC publishes its reports on the current investigations around July, among its recommendations will be a tightening of the rules for financial disclosure and pecuniary interest disclosures.

O'Farrell has said he will wait for the reports before deciding what, if any, action is needed.

Given the level of public outrage over what has become the largest corruption hearing in NSW history, it will be much harder for O'Farrell to get away with ignoring the ICAC's recommendations this time around.